Beez Neez now Chy Whella

Villa Week 13

Big Bear and Pepe Millard

Sat 20 Jun 2020 23:57

Week Thirteen at Sleeping Indian

Sunday the 14th of June. After a slow-ish start we enjoyed our Aunt Ett’s, Bear had a tiny event, I snuck a win at backgammon and then to work.......

I set about grouting the line of kitchen tiles after Bear did my mix.Later, he turned the plug sockets to the correct way round, cleaned and refitted them

I had some mix left over so I began the strings down the stairs. Bear finished the job for me as I had trashed my thumb and index finger on a sharp tile edge. We finished a game of Mex Train, went for a swim and when we got back from the beach I cut Bear’s hair. Shower time and the rest of the cottage pie for supper..... Another super fast day.

Monday the 15th. Chris and Dexter arrived with a big percentage of our kitchen and bedroom units all shiny and white. Too many bodies about the place so they will return to begin painting on the morrow.

Tuesday the 16th. Chris (now also known as Mr. Brush) and Dexter (who came up with Bobby for himself) arrived. Bossman made sure they had enough ‘stuff’ to be getting on with and we set out with a paint shopping list. As we passed the new, left-hand car port post – Oh My – termite trail and a long one, straight on the mobile to the critter killers and off we went. We bimbled out to our favourite hairdresser to borrow Sharmone’s car. Lots of shops....., lots and lots of shops in fact but our first stop was to pick up our new, Caribbean-coloured debit cards.

Wednesday the 17th. I sprayed a final coat of grey on the boys frame and settled them, while I was doing that Bear measured, drilled, rawl plugged and added screws in readiness. Lovely to see them hanging but within minutes I thought I saw a micro ant on the glass, no, make that two of them under the glass, and I had taped the back of the frame. That was it, the ant poison that I bought yesterday went into action and within an hour they were partying on the table by the microwave at the end of the lounge.......and this after we thought we had finished off the two nests we found when we moved in. For a few days we thought we had got on top of the problem but here we are fighting them again. I began spraying one of the rattan headboards as a test to see if I could get down in between the strands. Bear re-routed and fitted the new tap on the deck, sorted the wood pile, sanded two dodgy kitchen cupboard door handles for me to spray and then pottered about.

Bobby tipped and rolled the first coat in the lower kitchen cupboards as Mr. Brush filled and sanded the front rail and fences. Mr. Brush then set about sanding the patio ceiling as Bobby primed the fences.

Black headed gulls in a line made for an amusing sight, they better not want to do that when we paint the dock.

Thursday the 18th. Mr. Brush did the first coat on the now smooth patio walls and Bobby applied the first coat of gloss to the fences. Meanwhile, Cutie (Benji) came in for a clean-up day. He removed all the dollops that protect the tiles in transit from the patio and staircase, smoothed a rough bit on the overhang and generally worked hard all day. I sprayed headboards and mirror for the front bedroom. Bear pottered, started refitting kitchen cupboard hinges etc, and moved his wood pile ready for Terminix on the morrow. Went for a swim.

On our return we saw that Mrs. Bananaquit had abandoned the nest she had built in the far milkwood cactus and has built a far more orderly one closer to the front door.

Friday the 19th. At half six I paid my computer protection for the year ahead but somehow lost the banking bar that shows itself then hides at the top of the screen. On line a chap called Sethu took over my computer and it was fun to watch him whizzing about the place. Twenty minutes later, all was well and back came my bar. Chris and Bobby came to paint on the deck. Francis came to sort the troublesome beasties out... First, he dug a shallow trench all along the garden (oh, all our work to get it smart), then a similar trench between us and our neighbours.

Next, he drilled four holes in a line on the drive, went up his ladder to assess the car port roof which he said was not terminally infected but critters over time had hollowed out one of the beam ends but that it was quite easily repairable (good news as we had feared having to replace the whole thing). He mixed his chemicals and began to spray. At this point we went inside and I reassured Bobby his going-home shoes were guaranteed against termites for a year...... Later, I asked Francis if we could get rid of the soil, roll the weed netting along his trench and backfill over it with the new chippings we are going to buy. The answer was no, apparently as soon as the soil is replaced it forms the correct barrier. Francis handed over our certificate for twelve months and before he left I asked what was best to use on our micro ant problem. The lovely man nipped over to his truck – love the “Power Over Pests” sign – and mixed me up a milk bottle full of ‘something’. We bade him farewell with huge thanks. The poorly looking garden will have to wait to be put to rights but there was a bit of joy.......

.....the two chaps we rescued from being root-bound in the ugly patio pots had been causing worry, faded fronds, brown tips and each showing a tightly closed new growth that seemed to be frozen in time. Despite watering, feeding and talking to them they were being stubborn a whole seven weeks on. Well, today the first one to go into the ground suddenly spread his frond, lush, green and healthy. The second chap to go in is nice and green, his new frond is still tightly closed but very tall and we are now confident all is well.

The yellow trumpetbush is blooming and growing taller, and as for the boys in the kitchen.......... Once in bed I did a little research on termites, they can live in small colonies of a few hundred up to several million. They live anywhere on the planet save for the Antarctic and if we have (or had) a new queen, she can live for thirty to sixty years outliving both of us – very sobering.

Saturday the 20th. Mr. Brush and Bobby arrived bright and breezy. Bobby worked on the deck and Mr. Brush prepped the upstairs balcony, then Bobby did the primer coat. I did a second coat on the staircase strings. Bear ground down the knobby bits of metal corrosion that had built up on the ceiling light surrounds from the patio. While he was doing that I had some fun. The pink and green pot pourri in the downstairs toilet will not do with the new blue tiles (yet to be hung), I tipped them out on a tray covered with cling film and dunked half of them in blue paint. The boys were mystified to say the least. Bear finished his chore so I sprayed them silver, then sprayed the other half of the pot pourri. The boys left just then looking very tired. We will see them for a final time on Monday, their work is really beginning to show now. Time for a swim in the rain.......